New coffee shop coming to Vic's Espresso original Boulder location

By Lucas High

Staff Writer

Posted:
07/06/2018 05:07:20 PM MDT

Beleza Coffee Bar will open soon in the old Vic's Espresso location in Boulder. (Paul Aiken / Staff Photographer)

Greg Lefcourt, the former co-owner of Ozo Coffee, is opening Beleza, a new coffee shop in the space that used to house the original Boulder location of Vic's Espresso. (Douglas Brown / The Denver Post)

The recently closed Vic's flagship location in Boulder's Community Plaza Shopping Center is set to reopen as another coffee shop owned and operated by former Vic's barista and Ozo Coffee co-owner Greg Lefcourt and his partner Nafisa Ramos.

The new shop, Beleza Coffee Bar, is expected to open around Halloween.

Lefcourt, who left Ozo late last year, said the shop will feature a "very specifically curated coffee menu" with beans from roasters around the country.

"There are so many more beautiful characteristics about these coffees than I even realized," said Lefcourt, who has made connections with out-of-state roasters through his role as judge and past competitor in the U.S. Barista Championships.

The menu will rotate throughout the year, he said, but will always feature at least one Colorado roaster.

"We want to give people in Boulder the opportunity to try something different," Lefcourt said.

Beleza will also serve food such as pastries and breakfast burritos.

Lefcourt, who worked at Vic's about 15 years ago, said, "I've always had a lot of respect for Vic's."

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"It was a powerhouse back around the turn of the century and there was no place that operated like it," he said. "It was an amazing operation."

Vic's left the location — the local chain's first of four current operations in Boulder County — when owner Mike Hilliker and the store's landlord Community Plaza Partners could not reach an agreement on a long-term lease. Vic's had been operating on a month-to-month lease for about two years.

"For nearly three decades Community Plaza Partners have sought out the highest quality tenants in each of the services the project provides for the North Boulder neighborhoods and Boulder's broader community," according to an emailed statement from Community's Plaza' Henry Beer. "We strive to maintain 100 percent local tenant mix and have succeeded in doing so."

Hilliker said the property owners decided to rent the space to a new tenant following a series of events involving requests from the landlord that Vic's start serving alcohol and renovate the shop.

Hilliker said renovating the store would cost several hundred thousand dollars, a cost that did not make good business sense.

The Vic's locations in Boulder at 3305 30th St. and 1886 30th St., and in Louisville at 801 Main St. and 1055 Courtesy Road will continue to operate as normal. Hilliker said the chain may open another Boulder location in the future, but those talks are in very preliminary stages.

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